Hinds is the head of the Work Innovation Lab by Asana, a think tank that conducts research to help businesses meet the evolving workplace changes and challenges.

The different types of perspective swaps

"To remain competitive, businesses must continually challenge the status quo and find ways to reinvent themselves," Hinds writes. One way to do this is with a perspective swap, which involves "intentionally shifting your point of view to gain a new understanding of a situation."

Vertical perspective swaps

Vertical perspective swaps occur when leaders and employees switch positions. For example, a CEO may work as a customer service representative or a regular employee may have an opportunity to act as CEO for a day.

"Leaders often suffer from 'power poisoning' and fixate on their own needs and ambitions," Hinds writes. "Perspective swaps can help detox leaders from blind spots and distorted views of what’s actually happening on their teams."

If perspective swaps at the highest leadership levels are not possible, Hinds recommends that companies divide leaders into teams and run simulations to see how they would act as "CEO" or how they would respond to unexpected events.

Lateral perspective swaps

Lateral perspective swaps occur across different functional groups or teams, such as sales, marketing, and HR.

"Think about which of your teams stand to gain the most from perspective swaps," Hinds writes. "Instructing members of different teams to temporarily swap places can fuel a new level of empathy and understanding — and, if all goes well, productive organizational change."

For example, Ben Horowitz, a venture capitalist, noticed that his customer support and sales engineering teams were struggling to collaborate and had "blistering complaints" about one another. However, after he had the heads of the two teams swap places, they gained a greater understanding of each other's challenges and were able to resolve their initial issues.

Project or initiative level perspective swaps

Perspective swaps can also occur with specific projects, initiatives, or change efforts. One example is with artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives.

According to Hinds, AI initiatives often don't live up to their initial promise because AI developers are often separated from the end-users of the technology. To address this issue, Hinds recommends bringing end-users into the development process, which will "increase the likelihood that AI implementations will meet the needs of your people and deliver tangible value."

Why are perspective swaps effective?

Aside from allowing people to gain new insight into a situation, perspective swaps can also help build "cognitive flexibility," which is "the ability to think creatively and adaptively in response to new situations and change efforts," Hinds writes.

Perspective swaps can also fuel "System 2" thinking, a term coined by psychologist Daniel Kahneman. While System 1 thinking is fast and intuitive, System 2 thinking is slower and more deliberate. This kind of thinking can be especially valuable for leaders, helping them avoid blind spots and confirmation bias.

"Ultimately, perspective swaps can foster a culture of innovation and empowerment that leads to better outcomes for everyone involved," Hinds writes. (Hinds, Harvard Business Review, 5/16)

Download this workbook to understand the core principles of adaptive leadership and learn how to apply its concepts to your own life.